Started at 8.30
Off to a Buddhist temple this morning, had to cleanse in the water house and heal ourselves with incense then we could go in the temple. Red colour warns off bad spirits. Temple fist exited in 8th century when 2 fishermen brothers found a Buddha statue in the river and built a house around it and so it grew from then. It grew massively in the 16/17th century when the shogun put lots of money into it. It was burnt down in 1945 "during the war" and the locals raised money to have it rebuilt in the 50s. The head of Panasonic donated a lot of money to get it started.
Then to the imperial palace which was actually a castle for the last shogun who resigned in 1859? At which point the emperor and his wife moved in and made Tokyo the capital - used to be Kyoto. There is very little to see and little remains of the original castle other than a stone wall and the guard house. The palace is only open on 2 days a year the emperors birthday and January 2nd for new year. There is a changing of the guard ceremony similar to ours which we saw.
The park surrounding the palace was barren and dry and had a lot of pine trees shaped like bonsai. Apparently gardeners tend to them continuously and there were no pine neves anywhere. Saw a couple of homeless guys there too.
After this we went to the ginza district once the most expensive place in Japan full of expensive shops. Claire and I didn't go shopping but investigated the underground and went to the busiest area in Tokyo where there is a dog statue - story like grey fries Bobby.
Well it is mad here exactly as you image 36 'million people live in Tokyo and about 5 million were trying to cross the road the same time as me.
Really good here - then got on the underground and went to the top of the worlds tallest building the sky tree and bought some biscuit things from the temple - umm
Diet out of the window - chips for breakfast with noodles and croissants and crispy bacon.
Had a bit of a scare when I when in the bathroom. We have a remote control toilet with about 5 buttons to press for different washes also and get this - the loo seat is heated so when you sit on it it is hot also you don't want to sit on it too long as it is slanted forward.
Well got to go now off for a 16 course traditional Japanese dinner so going to get changed and head off
Dinner was interesting in a room sitting at a floor height table and being waited on by a traditional dress waitress. Courses ranged from baby squid and octopus to raw tuna, wasabi beans, sticky rice, beef and tempura and for dessert - ice cream. Lots of traditional sauces which I can't remember - must add to the blog at a later date.
Back to the hotel around 9.30 and claire is tired so we have retired.
Now around 10 so will turn in as we need to be up about 6:30 tomorrow
All in all a good if busy day.
Bring on tomorrow Mount Fuji. Weather forecast is rain - today was sunny and 18 degrees.
Tokyo
Saturday, March 05, 2016
Shinjuku-ku, Tōkyō-to, Japan
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2025-02-07